Lionel wrote: ↑Fri Jan 10, 2020 9:27 pm
If #17 had been taking advantage of the Cell Jrs to improve his power then it must not have been too much initially as the Daizenshuu leads one to believe he was killed by Super Buu along with everyone else sans Mr Satan, Bee, Tenshinhan, and Chaozu. Unless he's so adamant about remaining out of world affairs that he's willing to jeopardise not only his own safety but his family's and the island's animals as well, he likely couldn't do much against Buu. If he could then why not make haste and rush over to aid everyone once Babidi starts telegraphing Buu and his intentions to the world?
We can't pinpoint exactly how much Piccolo has improved by in the manga but it's probably a lot if the opponent he could pressure in the Champa arc was prompting the Saiyans to transform. Already by the beginning of BOG we see Goku showing confidence in his ability to fight Kid Buu with just SSJ1 during his image training. Who knows how much stronger he became between then and the Universe 6 tournament. By proximity and effort to his enemies, there's some implications for Piccolo there as well.
How long was the gap between Cell and Buu vs the gap between Buu and ToP.
He might not have found the Jr's untill the latter period and only started improving then.
Also Buu might have got him while he was sleeping or something, as far as we know 17 can't sense chi right?
In fact getting merced by Buu might have started him off training, with or without the Jr's, or got him to step it up at least.
17 saying he didn't do much but did tame the Jr's is similar to Goten getting strong by playfighting with Trunks. The joke is that *is* good training even if the person doesn't realise it or see it as training.
Piccolo has obviously improved, there's no evidence he can't he's just not gonna unlock huge transforamtions and get a lot at once like a saiyan.
Frost was already beaten up by some indeterminate amount by Goku so it's hard to gauge there.
I wouldn't put much stock in Goku's image training scene. It's literally his imagination, he can imagine them strong or weak as he likes.
He didn't improve that much is 7 years of heaven training (his ss2 wasn't much more than Gohans) so why would he pre BoG?
In fact just popping out my manga, he rushes kid buu but never reaches him before Goten drives the tractor off the cliff, for all we know he was about to transform again. It's hardly evidence imo.
The best evidence for Piccolo is that Goku chooses him right after Buu, before a rusty Gohan and doesn't even mention 18, Tenshinhan or the boys or anything in the same breath, despite knowing he needs 5. He obviously just still considers Piccolo a top tier talent. Wether he's better than Gohan just because of his fighting instincts or he's actually stronger he doesn't consider any of the others above before Gohan I guess. It's a roundabout reccomendation.